Kai Lenny has spent his career chasing waves in just about every way imaginable. Now the Hawaiian waterman is putting years of that experience into a new app designed for surfers, foilers, windsurfers, kiteboarders and other water athletes.
Lenny has announced the broader launch of Venturi Sports, an all-in-one platform he co-founded to combine marine forecasts, live conditions, GPS session tracking, gear recommendations, spot information and a social community in one place.
“Venturi is the app I always wanted as a water athlete: better tools for getting on the water, tracking what you do, and bringing the community together,” Lenny said in announcing the project.
The app has been in development and available in earlier versions since late 2025. Lenny’s announcement comes alongside a substantial September update and a redesigned version of the platform. The latest iOS release adds deeper performance analysis, improved forecasts and updated safety tools.
One App for Forecasts, Spots and Sessions
Venturi’s basic idea is straightforward: water athletes often use several different tools to decide when and where to go, track a session and communicate with other riders. Venturi is trying to bring those functions together.
The app combines real-time wind, swell and tide information with forecasts built from multiple weather models, including GFS, HRRR and ECMWF. Venturi says it also applies machine-learning adjustments to its forecasts. Users can view hourly wind and gust information, swell direction and period, tide windows and longer-term swell trends.
The latest Android release also adds ocean-current and wave-period layers directly to the weather map.
Live observations can come from weather stations and buoys, while webcams are available at some locations. Users can create alerts for wind, swell, tides and other spot-specific conditions.
For someone deciding whether it is worth loading boards onto the car, that may be the app’s most immediately useful function.
Detailed Information About Where to Get on the Water
Venturi also includes community-driven guides for individual water-sports locations.
Spot pages can include launch information, hazards, parking, access, local rules, tide requirements, useful wind and swell directions and recommendations from other riders. Users can post photographs, reviews and current condition reports.
The focus is not limited to traditional surfing. Venturi lists wing foiling, kiteboarding, windsurfing, foil surfing, tow foiling, surfing, stand-up paddling, downwinding and e-foiling among the activities it supports. That broad approach makes sense coming from Lenny is the quintessential jack of all trades when it comes to getting out on the water and having fun.
It Also Works Like a Strava for Water Sports
Once someone gets on the water, Venturi becomes a GPS performance tracker.
The app records routes, speed, maximum speed, distance and heart-rate information. Sessions can be reviewed afterward and automatically uploaded to Strava. Apple Watch support allows users to record sessions directly from their wrist.
Venturi has also added course functionality aimed particularly at downwinders and other point-to-point sessions. Riders can create courses, follow navigation while on the water and compare performances on leaderboards.
Courses can be sent to an Apple Watch or Garmin device, where an arrow points riders along the route. The app can also provide navigation and voice guidance from a phone, including when downloaded courses are being used without a cellular signal.
Recent updates have added tools for comparing speed across different sections of a ride and tracking longer-term performance trends.
Gear Recommendations Based on Conditions
Venturi also attempts to solve another familiar problem for wind athletes: deciding what equipment to bring.
The app can recommend wing and kite sizes using current conditions, rider data and input informed by Lenny’s experience. Users can maintain a digital gear collection and associate individual boards, wings, foils and other equipment with their recorded sessions.
Over time, that allows riders to see the conditions in which specific equipment was used and how they performed with it.
A Social Network Built Around Being on the Water
Venturi is also trying to build its own water-sports community rather than functioning purely as a weather and tracking utility.
Users can see recent sessions, post photographs and videos, discuss individual spots, message other athletes and see when friends are currently riding. Live tracking can also allow friends to follow someone’s progress on the water.
Safety features have become a growing part of the platform. Recent versions include Beacon tools for keeping friends or family informed during sessions, live rider status and SOS controls for iPhone and Apple Watch.
That could be particularly valuable for athletes who regularly head offshore or complete long downwind routes.
Years in the Making
Lenny described Venturi as a project that has been years in development and credited other water athletes with helping shape it.
The timing of his announcement coincides with a major update to the app. Apple’s current version history shows a redesigned interface, expanded performance charts, a 16-day forecast view, improved swell and tide information, richer GPS-session analysis and revised safety controls.
The Android version was also updated Sept. 15 and currently includes wind, swell, tide, current and wave-period information alongside its session tracking and community features.
Venturi is available for both iOS and Android. The basic app is free to download and includes in-app purchases. Apple’s U.S. listing currently shows Premium at $11.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
Lenny has spent much of his career pushing equipment and water sports into new territory, from big-wave surfing to hydrofoiling.
Venturi is a different kind of project, but the philosophy is familiar. Instead of committing to one discipline, Lenny is attempting to build one tool around nearly everything people do on the water.
